The recent "Indie Rock Universe" piece covered here on Punknews.org has been characterized as a big tobacco ad in the printed version. According to this story, the nine–page pullout in the Nov. 15 issue sponsored by Reynolds contained cartoon images which is forbidden by the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between 46 states and tobacco manufacturers.

The "ads" themselves were wrapped around the "Indie Rock Universe" feature which is more concerning because the bands quoted in the "advertorial" could be seen as an endorsement of cigarettes and at least one band was offended by their inclusion:

m in one of the bands name dropped in this fold out ad. Nobody , at any time contacted my band , label or publicist. We were never asked if we wanted to be mentioned in a cigarette ad or if we minded to have our music on The Farm website. We certainly were NOT compensated in anyway.

I personally don't smoke , nor do any of my bandmates. I already lost a parent to lung cancer and having my band associated in any way with Camel INFURIATES me. Camel doesn't care about indie music and neither does Rolling Stone. Both just want youth money and don't care what ethics they breech to get it.

Advertising agencies have been a little aggressive in using images in the past, with companies like Nike using Minor Threat artwork and Doc Martens using Nirvana and Joe Strummer in their ads. If the "advertorial" section is found to be an ad, this could open the door for lawsuits from any of the bands mentioned against both the tobacco companies and Rolling Stone itself.

You can check out the original presentation of the "feature" right here (large PDF). In the print version, the actual content occupied approximately 2 pages out of eight while the rest was devoted to large Camel ads.

There was actually a good article in the issue after this called "How We Lost the War on Drugs"... very interesting read. It's in the current issue with Led Zep on the cover. I only read it because for some reason RS sends me free issues every November and December.

I reckon bands should sue the arse off any company that used their images without permission (such as Nike, Doc Martens and this one). Just because these companies need to learn that they can't keep doing shit like this.

Honestly, classical conditioning has little to do with youth smoking or smoking in general in my opinion. I've been a smoker off and on for about twelve years, and I'm not going to lie, I originally picked up the habit as a form of 'rebellion' and to be one of those 'cool kids' when I was younger, but it had nothing to do with Joe Camel or the fact that I saw Kurt Cobain smoking a cigarette on MTV. I don't think there's a person over the age of twelve who doesn't know that cigarettes cause cancer, but some of us still choose to smoke. Removing ads may make the bands involved feel less responsible but its not going to stop kids who want to smoke from smoking!

Just to clarify, I'm not proud of the fact that I smoke, I stopped for four years and started back last year, I want to try to quit again after finals.

while it doesn't explicitly state that the featured bands ENDORSE smoking or Camel cigarettes (Camel's only sponsoring the ad/article itself), one could definitely see how that could be misconstrued as such.

that's some underhanded bullshit by big business, nonetheless. it's kind of sickening how incestuous and densely conglomerated the business world has really become. everyone's in bed with one another, and it only gives us the illusion of choice. doesn't matter if it's cigarettes, record labels, movie studios, department/clothing stores (z0mg the gap corporation owns hot topic no wai!)......almost every company is owned or subsidized by some larger faceless corporation.

I subscribe to Rolling Stone (coincidentally enough, it's mostly for the political articles and film reviews) but I remember this feature, and to the average reader it just looks like Camel was supplying the advertising for that particular section of the magazine, not like the bands were affiliated with Camel.

I only smoke Chesterfields. Humphrey Bogart smoked Chesterfields, Bob Dylan smoked them until his face caved in and James Dean smoked three packs of them until he died. Far as I'm concerned, they never have to advertise again.

It's their thread of the same story. This is an example of youth today. These fucks think that kids are not the demographic of a "basics of indie rock" segment in Rolling Stone, which they absolutely are. They can't wait to be work for the man and disgrace journalism in the name of commerce.

that's usually a venue thing. camel and kools have sponsership deals with venues allowing them to do that sort of crap. not that i think lucero minds, they have hands down some of hte smokiest shows i've ever been to

"m in one of the bands name dropped in this fold out ad. Nobody , at any time contacted my band , label or publicist. We were never asked if we wanted to be mentioned in a cigarette ad or if we minded to have our music on The Farm website. We certainly were NOT compensated in anyway.

I personally don't smoke , nor do any of my bandmates. I already lost a parent to lung cancer and having my band associated in any way with Camel INFURIATES me. Camel doesn't care about indie music and neither does Rolling Stone. Both just want youth money and don't care what ethics they breech to get it."

I cant say that i really care at all about the big bad tobbaco companies peddling their wares at indie shows. No more so than when alcohol companies do the same at shows. Ive always maintained smoking is personal choice and if you know the dangers of smoking and still want to smoke then thats cool. We're all big boys and girls here and Im not gonna warn you bout the risks cause i could care even less about your life than you do. If you smoke to fit in or be cool thats fine too people should be free to do what they want.

Shit if Camel wants to dump millions of dollars handing out free tickets to some cool bands then i say FUCK YEA. Ill be right there at the shows not smoking, not feeding into their bullshit enjoying a free show on THEIR dollar.

The only thing that annoyed me is how mainstreme media outlets like Rolling Stone
VH1 ect. like to pay lip service and name check bands they dont really cover or associate with. other than that i say up with the corruption of youth, up with corporate sponsered indie rock shows!

this is something i just thought about after reading the part about nikes' usage of minor threat and nirvana stuff.

most people initally see that and think "well there goes that evil corporation, doing it again" or something like that. but the initial creator of the image (i'm thinking of the 'major threat' piece) was probably made by some recent college grad in graphic design who was just bored one night. then their boss gave them a few thousand bucks and next thing you know, it's in a few magazines.

not that i'm defending nike though. that's just more or less how i think it came about.